Shielding Aspen

by Susan Stoker

  He saw her frown.

  Brain stopped and put his hands on her shoulders. “You have to take care of yourself first. You won’t be any good to anyone else if you fall over from exhaustion or because you haven’t kept yourself hydrated or fueled.”

  Aspen took a deep breath. “I know. I just…I keep hearing their cries for help in my head, and it makes me want to get right back out there.”

  “We won’t take a long break. Just enough to get some calories and water into you. Okay?”

  “Okay. Kane?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m glad I came.”

  He smiled at her. “Me too.”

  “You don’t miss working with your team?” she asked.

  He took her hand again and headed for the food tent once more. “Not like you’re thinking. I mean, yeah, we work really well together, but this isn’t exactly a war zone. During the rescues, we have to worry more about inanimate hazards, like being electrocuted or debris in the water, rather than the two-legged variety. Believe it or not, we can operate without being joined at the hip,” he teased, happy to see Aspen return his smile.

  “True. Besides, you have me,” she sassed.

  “I have you,” Brain agreed solemnly.

  Aspen glanced over at him, and he knew she heard the sincerity and admiration in his tone.

  The food tent was surprisingly busy. There were military personnel as well as local civilians sitting and standing around, eating donated pizza, subs, and other snacks. Brain pulled Aspen into a line and they both filled plates with food. They stood off to the side of the tent, eating while standing up. Their clothes were soaked and, now that they weren’t in the middle of a high-stakes rescue, Brain could feel the stress of the night pressing down on him. He wanted nothing more than to take a long, hot shower, change into dry clothes, and sleep for a day.

  But rest would come after the job was done. The rain was supposed to continue through the night and then taper off…finally. The city needed the break, and the drains needed time to do their thing.

  “You ready to go catch another boat?” Aspen asked after they’d both eaten most of the items on their plates.

  “Ready as ever,” Brain said. He caught Aspen’s hand in his before she could head out of the tent. “Aspen?”

  “Yeah?” she asked after turning toward him.

  “If I forget to say it later, you’re amazing.”

  She smiled. “Back at’cha, Kane.”

  Then, hand in hand, they headed into the rainy night to rescue some more stranded citizens.

  Aspen was beyond tired. She felt like she did when she’d gone through the training to be attached to a Ranger unit. Every muscle in her body hurt and her wet clothes seemed to suck the energy right out of her. The darkness made everything look sinister and scary, and she wanted nothing more than to lie down on the ground and tell Kane to go on without her.

  But she wasn’t a quitter. And there were people out there who needed help. If she didn’t go, who would? They’d have to wait that much longer for someone to get to them. There might be someone hurt, bleeding, or having a heart attack, who needed medical attention. She hated to think that someone could die just because she was a little tired. That was unacceptable.

  So as exhausted as she was, she’d keep going for as long as her body would allow. And hearing Kane say he thought she was amazing did wonders for her energy levels. She could probably go on until she dropped over dead, as long as he was proud of her.

  Working with him had been a pleasant surprise. She’d been nervous, because they’d never had to work side by side before. And it was nothing like working with some of the macho Rangers. He listened to her, didn’t try to tell her how to do everything as if she were a child, and he deferred to her in almost all of the medical situations they’d encountered. He treated her as if she was a true member of their team, and it felt so good.

  This was what she’d wanted when she’d signed up to be a combat medic. To work with others who didn’t care about anything other than accomplishing their mission. Instead, she’d had to fight to be seen as competent by the very people she should’ve been able to trust implicitly.

  “Fuck,” Kane said under his breath as they approached the landing area for the boats.

  Surprised at the venom in his tone, Aspen looked up. She’d been lost in her head and hadn’t realized there was only one boat waiting at the moment. It was an aluminum fishing boat, probably donated to the rescue efforts by a local civilian.

  And Derek was at the controls.

  Kane’s steps slowed, but Aspen clenched her teeth in determination. Yes, she hated Derek, but she could put aside their differences for the greater good. She just hoped he could too.

  “Thank God!” Derek shouted, frantically waving at them to hurry. “During my last run, I heard about a pregnant woman who was in active labor. We need to get back there ASAP. Get in and let’s go!”

  Breaking into a jog, Aspen hurried for the boat. By the time she got to it, she was dragging Kane. “Come on,” she urged, lifting her leg to step into the boat. But Kane held her back, not letting her get in.

  “Why didn’t you stop and get her when you first heard about her?” Kane asked Derek.

  “Because the boat was already full. I had a woman with three kids, the youngest was two. They were freaked out, and there was no way we would’ve all fit in here if we’d gone back. Look, the longer you stand there, the worse her condition could be. She might have that baby and bleed out, or she could even lose it. You comin’ or not?”

  Aspen hadn’t delivered a lot of babies, but she’d seen her share of bad outcomes when it came to giving birth. She remembered the baby she’d delivered while in Afghanistan, how good it had felt to hold the healthy infant in her hands. She couldn’t let another woman suffer if she could do something to help her.

  “Kane?” she questioned. She hoped he wasn’t the kind of man to let his personal grievances get in the way of doing what was right.

  She breathed out a sigh of relief when he gave her a brief nod and shifted his grip to her arm to help her step into the boat.

  “How far away is she?” Kane asked.

  “Not too far,” Derek said, backing the boat up the second Kane’s foot left dry land, not even giving him time to sit before he was revving the engine and flying away from the staging area.

  Aspen frowned and held the edge of the boat for dear life. She understood the need for urgency, but none of the other drivers they’d had that night had driven as recklessly as it seemed Derek was.

  “Slow down, man!” Kane yelled, obviously feeling the same unease as Aspen.

  “Gotta get to her!” Derek shouted back.

  The rain pelted Aspen’s face, making it impossible for her to keep her eyes open. She ducked her head into her shoulder and squeezed her eyes shut. She held on to the side of the aluminum boat with all her might and prayed that they made it to the pregnant woman in one piece.

  How long they drove, Aspen had no idea, but she’d never been so happy to feel the boat slowing down. She lifted her head and looked around. She had no clue where they were; nothing looked familiar. There were no lights on anywhere. She could see the vague shape of townhouses all around them in the darkness, but the electricity had obviously gone out in this part of the city.

  “We’re almost there,” Derek said. It was much easier to hear him, now that they weren’t driving a million miles an hour. The rain still fell steadily, making it even harder to see.

  “Keep an eye out, I don’t know exactly which townhouse is hers. The other lady said she thought she was three or four units down from hers,” Derek told them.

  Which didn’t exactly help, since Aspen didn’t know where the original rescue had taken place. She was sitting toward the front of the boat, and Kane was more toward the middle. She glanced over her shoulder, noting Derek still sitting in the back next to the engine. Kane gave her a chin lift and a reassuring smile, which she appreciated.
/>   Aspen turned back around and leaned forward, trying to see through the darkness, looking for debris in the fast-moving water, as well as any sign of the townhouse in question.

  The boat rocked a bit, but Aspen ignored it, concentrating too hard on finding the pregnant woman in distress.

  But she couldn’t ignore the loud thud behind her—or the way the boat suddenly swayed back and forth alarmingly before a splash sounded.

  Spinning around, she blinked in confusion.

  Derek was standing in the back of the boat with an oar in his hand—and Kane was nowhere to be seen.

  She heard something brush the boat and turned…only to see a body floating, facedown, quickly being washed away.

  Aspen made a noise in the back of her throat and stared at Derek in disbelief.

  “Hope his head is harder than it looks,” he snarled. “He’s not so tough now, is he?”

  In a flash, Aspen realized that Derek had clobbered Kane upside the head with the oar—and she was probably next.

  She could stay in the boat and fight Derek, or she could bail and save Kane.

  It was an easy decision.

  Taking a deep breath, Aspen threw herself to the left and over the side of the boat. The current immediately tugged at her, pulling her in the same direction she’d last seen Kane.

  When her head popped up from the murky water, she heard Derek laughing. “Good luck getting back to base!” he called out, then he gunned the engine on the boat and zoomed away.

  Knowing she should be outraged that Derek had left them in the middle of nowhere, Aspen couldn’t waste energy on anything other than finding Kane. He was unconscious and likely only had seconds to live.

  She swam as fast as she could with the current, hoping to catch up to Kane, and as luck would have it, crashed right into him as she frantically pinwheeled her arms. Grunting, she turned him over onto his back, which wasn’t easy in the middle of the fast-moving water.

  She couldn’t touch the ground beneath her and couldn’t see anywhere to drag Kane’s unconscious body to get traction, in case she needed to do CPR.

  Frantically, she put one hand on his chest to try to feel for movement, and she almost panicked when she couldn’t detect that he was breathing.

  Knowing nothing about this was ideal, she turned his head, covered his lips with hers, and blew.

  Then she did it again, and again.

  She had to get him breathing!

  She could feel his heart now, sluggishly beating under her hand, but if she had to do chest compressions, they were screwed.

  After one more long rescue breath, Kane gagged. Water spewed out of his mouth, and as gross as it was, Aspen was almost delirious with joy.

  “That’s it…throw it all up. Get it out,” she told him.

  She hoped he’d open his eyes and tell her that he was all right, but he never did.

  Using her legs to keep them afloat, Aspen looked around for a direction she could go to get them out of the water. She might’ve gotten Kane breathing again, but he wasn’t out of trouble, far from it. She could barely make out a dark splotch high on his forehead, and she knew he was bleeding.

  “Damn you, Derek,” she hissed as she put her arm around Kane’s chest and began to swim sideways. She didn’t know where the current would take them, and the last thing she wanted was to end up in a river and headed out to the gulf.

  She was relieved to see the townhouses were relatively nearby now. They were all dark, but maybe she could get to one and break inside.

  Her body trembling with exertion and adrenaline, Aspen used one arm and her legs to propel them in the direction of the closest building. Hoping she didn’t get turned around in the current.

  She almost cried when she saw a townhouse dead ahead.

  It took ten more minutes of fighting the current, but she finally managed to get to the steps leading up to the house at the end of the row. There was a wrought-iron rail along either side of the stairs, and she used it to help pull herself and Kane onto the steps. They were fully submerged, but the landing had only a couple inches of water. Using all her strength, Aspen hauled Kane’s dead weight up to it. She straddled his head and reached up for the doorknob, praying that maybe, just maybe, it would be unlocked. But of course it wasn’t.

  Since she didn’t fit on the small landing with Kane, she eased herself down on the first step, the water lapping at her hips.

  Leaning over Kane, she tried to feel his head where she’d seen the blood.

  She felt the warm sensation immediately, and knew the wound was still bleeding. Putting her hand over his head, she could literally feel the way his skin had split open when Derek had hit him.

  Anger rose within her again. Hot and hard.

  Derek had lied to them from the start. There was no pregnant woman. No one in trouble. She didn’t know if he’d thought of the scheme right there on the spot, when he’d seen her and Kane coming toward him, or if he’d planned to hurt them from the second he knew they’d all be together in Houston.

  It was shocking to realize he’d gone so far off the deep end. What other reason could there be? He’d tried to murder them! How had a decorated and respected Army Ranger fallen so low? And why? They hadn’t even dated very long! Two measly dates. Why had he gotten so enraged just because she didn’t want to see him anymore?

  Nothing about the situation made sense…and now Kane was lying unconscious and bleeding in the middle of the night, miles away from anyone.

  Aspen didn’t have any of her medical supplies, they were both soaking wet, and the water contained who knew what kind of contaminants.

  “Kane?” she semi-yelled, hoping he’d be able to hear her. “I need you to wake up now. We’re in deep shit.”

  She waited, but there was no movement from the man she loved with all her heart. She pressed harder on his head wound, hoping like hell she’d be able to slow the bleeding. She put her free hand on the side of Kane’s neck, where she could feel his pulse throbbing under the vulnerable skin there. Then she lay her head on his chest, listening to his heart.

  There was absolutely nothing she could do right then but hope and pray they’d be missed, and someone would come looking for them. It was a long shot, as she had no idea how far Derek had driven them from the staging area, but surely one of Kane’s team would eventually wonder where he was.

  She had to cling to that hope—because the alternative was unthinkable.

  Feeling overwhelmed, and more frightened than she’d been in her life, Aspen closed her eyes. The scent of oil and sewage was all around her, and she didn’t even want to think about what was in the water she was sitting in. At least she’d gotten Kane out of it.

  “Wake up, Kane,” she whispered. “You have to wake up.”

  But he didn’t even twitch.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “There’s been an accident!” one of the Coasties shouted as he ran past Trigger and the rest of the Deltas on his way to where the boats had parked, a couple blocks from the staging area.

  Without hesitation, all six men followed the man from the Coast Guard.

  As they ran, Trigger shouted to Lefty, “Where’s Brain?”

  “Don’t know. Haven’t seen him in hours,” Lefty returned.

  Trigger shouted to the others, “Anyone seen Brain and Aspen lately?”

  No one had.

  Trigger mentally swore. It was possible they were still out on another boat, rescuing people, but throughout the night, they’d all managed to touch base here and there, even if it was in passing.

  But if no one had seen or heard from either of them in hours, something was wrong. Trigger knew it without question. He’d never doubted his sixth senses before, and wasn’t about to start now.

  “What happened?” Doc asked one of the men rushing to get the boats ready to head out to wherever the accident had occurred.

  “I don’t know the details, but a boat hit a downed power line, and I guess because of the gas in the tank, ther
e was an explosion.”

  Trigger winced.

  “Who was onboard?” Grover barked out.

  “No one knows. The boat was outside our search parameters, and we’re still trying to account for all the vessels under our command,” the Coastie said distractedly. “We could use your help if you’re willing,” he added.

  Without hesitation, the six Deltas jumped into the two boats heading out to check on the situation.

  Trigger, Lefty, and Oz were in one, with Doc, Grover, and Lucky in the other. After a very long, dark night, the sun was finally beginning to inch over the horizon. Everywhere Trigger looked was devastation. Trees down, debris in the streets, and cars abandoned and floating as far as he could see.

  The water was receding, but not quickly enough. A small benefit to the rescue boats, as it meant they could get to the area where the explosion was reported.

  Trigger couldn’t shake the horrible feeling that Brain and Aspen were involved. There was no reason for them not to have been seen in hours, and the only conclusion he could come to was that they were somehow in the boat that had exploded.

  He felt sick inside. The entire team knew the time might come when they lost a man on a dangerous mission overseas, but to die here in the States because of a freak accident was too awful to think about.

  Not to mention…Brain hadn’t had his team at his back. That ate at Trigger more than anything else. They’d always had each other’s backs, and the thought of his friend hurt and dying alone was almost more than he could bear.

  Then Trigger remembered that Brain wasn’t alone. He had Aspen.

  The farther they got from the staging area, the poorer the area became. This wasn’t a good part of town on the best of days, but as the water receded, Trigger knew looting would break out and desperate citizens would do whatever it took to survive, including possibly attacking them on their boats for whatever they could get…water, food, first-aid supplies.

  The boats slowed as they neared the area where reports of an explosion were heard. Trigger, Lefty, and Oz leaned forward, all their attention on searching for anything out of the ordinary.